Chappaqua’s Jon Cobert: Pianist Who Played John Lennon’s Last Live Show

By Adam Stone

When Chappaqua’s Jon Cobert was around five years old, growing up in Prospect Park South, Brooklyn, he became mesmerized by the melodies his siblings played on the family piano.

His older brother and sister – twins – were taking lessons, and young Jon was fascinated. 

“You know, when their lesson was over, I would just jump up there and try to play what they were playing by ear,” the 70-year-old recalled in an interview earlier this week. “So they started me on lessons. I kind of naturally gravitated towards it. I just always loved it.”

Around that same time, across the Atlantic – about 3,300 miles away from Brooklyn – a young man in Liverpool named John Lennon and his mates were just beginning to make waves with their little band, The Beatles.

Then, about 14 years later, as the stars would have it, Jon and John’s musical paths would converge.

By that time, around 1974, Lennon was a living legend and soloist, while Cobert was a student at New York University, a double major in biology and music.

Cobert was playing in a band that had gotten signed to a management deal at Record Plant studios in New York, where their friend – the now iconic producer Jimmy Iovine – was working as an assistant engineer.

“So we were there every day and John Lennon came in to record his Walls and Bridges album and he was there every day,” Cobert explained. “So we would just hang out with him in the lounge and hang out with him in the game room and shoot pool and, you know, we just became friends with him.”

Cobert and Lennon became both buds and musical colleagues.

“He was just like a regular guy,” recalled the married father of two adult children, Dana and Josh. “He had no attitude. He just wanted to be one of the guys. He just wanted to walk down the street and, you know, take a cab, go shopping, go into a restaurant, have lunch. And he was funny as hell.”

Imagine

It’s important to note that Cobert is an incredibly accomplished pianist/vocalist/composer/producer/engineer who has played with a laundry list of greats – from Tom Chapin to John Denver – and many other outstanding artists. 

And his career features loads of fun details – like the fact that he created ESPN’s Baseball Tonight jingle in the early 1990s.

He plays live music at Crabtree’s Kittle House in Chappaqua almost every Thursday, and can also be seen most weeks at Polpo in Greenwich, Ct.

A recent visit to Jazz on Main in Mt. Kisco on Sunday, March 16, saw Cobert engaging a brunch crowd with his lively piano performance and friendly demeanor, delivering fan-favorite sing-alongs from artists such as Elton John, Billy Joel, The Beatles, Sinatra, Cole Porter, Dr. John, Tom Petty, and Van Morrison.

But his biographical link to Lennon occupies a special potency for audiences and curious journalists alike.

Cobert was the last pianist to perform with Lennon in front of a live audience, during a television special titled A Salute to Sir Lew Grade, taped in April of 1975, and airing in June of that year.

“I was the last to play Imagine with him,” Cobert explained.

‘Devastating’

While Lennon might not have been the best pure musician Cobert has played alongside, he had that unique charisma – that “it” quality – that set him apart.

“I mean, I played with some excellent, top notch musicians in my life,” Cobert noted, “but, you know, John Lennon just had that thing. That thing that you couldn’t ignore him, and that sense of humor.”

When Lennon was assassinated on Dec. 8, 1980, outside his New York City apartment, Cobert was in his apartment, watching Monday Night Football.  

Friends were planning to pick him up to go to Chinatown.

“And I told them what happened and we just stayed in my apartment and finished a bottle of Jack Daniels,” remembered Cobert, who was a “big Beatles fan” well before meeting Lennon, as was his older sister Tamara. “Man, yeah, that was devastating.”

Given the diverse range of experiences Cobert has enjoyed, he doesn’t dwell disproportionately on his Lennon link, unlike curious reporters.

“Except,” he noted, “to find it hard to believe that it actually did happen.” 

But Cobert also maintains a full understanding of the role the affiliation did play in his early career.

“I guess I just consider it one part of the whole diverse series of experiences that contributed to me being able to be a professional musician and not ever really having to have a real job,” the 33-year Chappaqua resident observed. “I’m extremely fortunate that way.”

Nana

Yet Cobert’s musical journey – and his desire to please audiences – was forged in his Brooklyn home, especially in trying to entertain his grandmother. 

“My grandparents lived with us in their house and my Nana – I called her Nana – she would sit on this chair – I still have the chair – which was at the edge of the music room, and she would just sit there and listen to me play,” Cobert reflected. “And that was a big impetus for me because just knowing that she was sitting there listening, it made a big difference.”

It instilled in Cobert (whose wife Wendy is an artist, too) a lifelong musical desire to make the crowd happy.

“People come up to me sometimes at these places like Kittle House or Polpo or something and say, ‘We love your selections, and ‘How do you decide what to play next?’ And I just say, ‘Well, I play what I like,’ but I also look at people around me and see what I think they might like to hear and what they’re reacting to,” Cobert remarked.

However, seven decades into his life, Cobert still also just plain loves playing music for its own sake.

“I’ll sit here in my living room and I’ll play for myself for an hour or two,” he also emphasized. “It doesn’t matter if nobody is listening.”

As for upcoming performances, other than his regular work at Kittle House and Polpo, Cobert will be featured again at Jazz on Main, with his Tribute to Elton John and Billy Joel, on Thursday, Apr. 24 at 7 p.m. Jazz on Main in Mt. Kisco. 

Cobert also has a pair of albums, he had a hat and here’s your canoe, both presented in lowercase by design, available on all major streaming services.

But is there a question he hasn’t been asked that he might want to answer?

A few beats later, Cobert concluded: “Would I ever retire? And the answer is no.”